The cultural life of Istanbul, which tones down a bit for the summer, is now in full swing again. This means that all the cultural centers and bars that closed for the summer are once again open.
Cutural Centers
There are several cultural centers (kültür merkezi) around Istiklal including those run by foreign organizations (Goethe Center, and the French and Italian cultural centers) and those run by big corporations (Borusan, Akbank (Aksanat) and Yapi Kredi). These generally run programs including films, music video presentations, concerts, gallery exhibitions, workshops and lectures. Many of the programs are very inexpensive or free.
The Istanbul Kultur Merkezi, recently opened up on upper Istiklal. This center is worth noting because where most of the other centers focus on Western arts (jazz, classical music, European films, etc.) the Istanbul Kultur Merkezi was opened to promote Turkish arts. The center has a book store, music store, gallery and cafe. They are starting up a new program of Turkish music concert/workshops, every Friday. Tickets are 4,500,000 (concert) or 7,500,000 (dinner and concert). Each week a different Turkish musical instrument is featured. The center also offers classes in Turkish arts which long term visitors may be interested in.
Istanbul Büyüksehir Belediyesi sponsored events:
The best place to find out about these is the Büyüksehir Belediyesi bookstore on lower Istiklal (bright blue, rather sparce bookstore). There is a rack in the entrance which has the monthly programs for the CRR concert hall (in Harbiye, behind the Army museum) including Turkish, classical and international music, and the program of other exhibitions, concerts (classic, Turkish folk and even an occasional Turkish rock concert) and films in venues including the Ataturk Library and the Tarik Zafer hall near Tünel.
Nightlife
Bar hoppers, head to Istiklal. The side streets are full of bars and nightclubs. To find out what is going on in the bars, I recommend the free publication “Zip”, available at various bars, cafes and the Dunya bookstore (lower Istiklal). Although it is in Turkish, the music listings are easy to figure out with minimal knowledge of the language.
Turkish Lesson 1: reading club listings
Days of the week: Pazar – Sunday,
Pazartesi – Monday,
Sali – Tuesday,
Çarsamba – Wednesday,
Persembe -Thursday,
Cuma – Friday,
Cumartesi – Saturday
Music types are generally like English:
Rock (or Rok), Blues, Jazz(or Caz), Pop, Latin, Muzik/Muzigi– music, grup – group, Dans – Dance, Dans ders – Dance course, Halk muzik (or halk muzigi) – folk music, Turkçe – Turkish , “1(Bir) yerli icki
dahil” – “1 local drink included (in cover fee)”.
That should get you by. If you find the Turkish listings daunting, you can also find cultural listings in the paper version of Istanbullshit, an English language monthly paper.
A couple Saturdays ago, I went to Kemanci on Sireselvilar (top of Istiklal) to see Kurban. They are a kick ass punk/metal/alternative band. Cover was 6 million and included a drink.
Bar concerts start later than in the USA, sometimes as late as midnight or 1 AM. Generally, the bands are hired to play one day, every week (i.e. every Friday) instead of having a variety of bands playing different concerts on a monthly schedule. Babylon is an exception. You can see their monthly schedule at their website. Also, non-smokers beware, everyone smokes tons here and bars don’t necessarily have decent (any) ventilation.
New Metro
They opened up the new Istanbul Metro line going from Taksim to Levent. It is a welcome way to avoid the traffic that one would usually meet with going between those two places. The Taksim stop has a series of photos on the walls about the history of traffic problems in Istanbul (OK, it is probably supposed to be about the history of transportation here but, same diff.). I think subways rock and I hate traffic with a passion so my only complaint about the new metro is that it isn’t long enough. This should change in the future when they connect the Taksim metro to the other metro line (on the other side of the Golden Horn).
Another transportation note:
Bus tickets have gone up to 400,000 TL. This makes it actually cheaper (and more comfortable) to take Dolmus vans for short trips. (i.e. Aksaray to Taksim, Besiktas to Taksim).
More info about Istanbul and other stuff
Istanbul Diary
An on-line journal of sorts about how I spent my weekends in and out of Istanbul. The emphasis is more on the places than my personal life.
Pages of Tamarchy
Everything else (travel writings and photos of other places, stories, artwork, a game, etc. etc.)
All photos and text are copyrighted ©2000, Tamia Lum